|| Sergio Viera de Mello Brazilian United Nations Diplomat,
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Mr. Mello was born on March 14, 1948 in Rio de Janiero, Brazil. He was the son of Arnaldo Vieira de Mello.
Mello attended the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in 1965. He also studied for a year at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland and Sorbonne University in Paris, where he studied philosophy under Vladimir Jankélévitch
At UNHCR, Vieira de Mello participated in field work assignments in Bangladesh during its war of independence in 1971 and Cyprus after the Turkish invasion in 1974.Vieira de Mello spent three years in charge of UNHCR operations in Mozambique during the civil war that followed its independence from Portugal in 1975, and three more in Peru. Vieira de Mello also served as Special Envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for Cambodia, being the first and only UN Representative to hold talks with the Khmer Rouge. He became senior political adviser to the UN Interim Force in Lebanon between 1981 and 1983. Before becoming the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in 2002, he was the UN Transitional Administrator in East Timor from December 1999 to May 2002, guiding that former Portuguese colony occupied by Indonesia to independence. He was also special representative in Kosovo for an initial period of two months and was the coordinator of humanitarian operations at UN Headquarters.
Mello was 55 years old at the time of death on August 19, 2003.
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